kitchen update in the works

i've always got something in works. house painting is still my numero uno, but pinterest has got me dreaming of a clean, white kitchen. 

[image via here]

and to convice myself that black appliances will, in fact, look good with white cabinets:

[image via here]

so here is my list in no particular order:

• pry ugly tile off all walls (backsplash on both sides, and wall to garage)
• prep walls behind counter for new tile
• tile backsplash (white subway tile)
• prep wall to garage for paint
• paint accent wall ^ (blue?)
• take off all cabinet doors & remove hinges/pulls
• fill in all holes from old hinges/pulls/new cabinets and fill 
• prime cabinets and doors
• paint cabinets and doors (uppers white, lowers grey)
• flip cabinet doors for more streamlined look
• change cabinet pulls above dishwasher to open toward each other _-||-_
• remove wood from cabinets above dishwasher 
• replace wood with 2 glass panels
• add electrical outlet to sink side of kitchen cabinet uppers
• add lights above cabinets
• replace counter 
• remove scallop from over sink area

it's fall, ya'll

fall decorating around the laws house. (top left-flowers from j for our 1 year anniversary)

happy fall!

slow backyard progress

last time i checked, my backyard looked something like this. eek!

 but when i went to check on it a few minutes later..

those scraggly weeds turned into trees! we couldn't even see out the [only] living room window. 

so i bought a handsaw for about nine bucks and put some good old-fashioned elbow grease into it. 

in about 45 minutes (spread out across two afternoons--yowza, it was a workout!) 

i could see the house!!!

 and out the window!!

what a difference!! although, seeing the house means we can see how badly the house needs painting. uh-oh. but, that's okay. painting the exterior is next on our list!!!! i'm so excited! 

sidenote: when i painted those swatches next to our new yellow front door, i picked the dark grey and then threw away the swatch. so we've settled (again) on a grey. this time--a similar color called Dark Granite by Behr